THERE’S been a buzz on Portland and Weymouth recently. The sun is shining, music is playing and there’s some of the world’s best athletes sailing the blue waters for their last competitive stop on the road to Rio.

Dorset Echo has gone behind the scenes with the British sailing team at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy for the Sailing World Cup 2016.

A total of 380 sailors from 44 nations are at the Sailing World Cup in Weymouth as they gear up for Rio.

Four times world cup champion in the Finn class, and a man who Olympic medalist Malcolm Page said has huge prospects for Rio – Giles Scott, from Weymouth, looks calm and collected at the press conference before his race.

Scott is the firm favourite to win at this year’s Olympics after winning 15 out of 17 regattas in the Rio quadrennial, and he’s happy to be back in home waters.

Scott said: “It’s great to be racing in Weymouth again and my home town. For me personally, this is a change in racing style. We have been racing in big fleets of 80 and now it’s a fleet of 23.

“In terms of preparation for Rio it’s one of the last major events.

“Weymouth is typically untypical. Everyone has this view that Weymouth is a very windy venue but we should get a light sea breeze and comparing that to Rio, it’s very similar.”

Olympic champion Xu Lijia, racing for China, won gold in the Laser Radial class at London 2012. She has high hopes too for Rio, but for now, is enjoying racing in England.

Lijia said: “Weymouth feels like home to me. I spend more time in England than in China.

“This final major event before the Olympics is important to every sailor.

“In Rio, everything can happen.”

Hazel Shaw, mother of Bryony Shaw – who has been selected to represent Great Britain at Rio, is volunteering at the sailing cup.

Hazel said: “I’ve been volunteering here since about 2001 and it’s just really great and a fabulous venue and to be at the heart of things and contributing.”

When he isn’t busy being chairman of WOW, Alan McKechan is also volunteering for the event.

Alan said: “Since the Olympics when I volunteered, I think it’s so important as a volunteer to put something back into a sport.

“The Olympics was a fabulous time, and it’s nice to recreate that.”

It takes all year to prepare for the sailing cup, and event director for the Royal Yachting Association, Bas Edmonds, said it takes a big team to get everything ready and aspire to the ambition for the event to be considered just below the Olympics.

Bas said: “We started preparing pretty much as soon as we finished the last sailing cup in 2015.

“This for the British sailing team is a good confidence booster and gets the British public behind the athletes.”

The feedback so far has been really positive for the event.

Bas said: “For us, the beauty of Weymouth and Portland is it’s designed for this amount of athletes and everything is here so it’s the perfect venue.”

Bas believes with everything being in one place, it’s the recipe for success for Weymouth being a world class venue for sailing.

He said: “It’s a mixture of the athletes all being together and the sailing conditions being world class. It provides for high quality racing in crystal clear waters.”

Around us, there’s children at the sailing academy getting ready to hit the waters on make-shift rafts.

They’re yelling ‘we were born ready!’ together at the top of their voices as athletes walk around them waiting for the wind to pick up for racing.

Stephen Park OBE, known to everyone as Sparky, is Olympic manager for the Team GB sailing squad. Grabbing him for a quick update on the team’s progress, he said they are all ready for the race to Rio.

Stephen said: “It’s going well and we’re looking forward to getting to Rio and getting on with business.

“The Olympics is the biggest peace time gathering in the world and a great opportunity for sailors to realise their dreams.

“It’s a culmination of years and years of training and athletes putting together their best game.”

Focussing on Team GB’s efforts, Stephen said: “Our sailors performances are coming together and we are confident. But we are also realistic and equally recognise the event is unpredictable and tides are tricky.

“If we come back with 3 or 4 medals we have to be really happy with that. But we are top of the table and have been a top nation at Olympic level.”

Stephen said the British team are setting a high level bar for up and coming sailors to aspire to.

He said: “There’s no doubt the 2012 games created a legacy and those young children who watched are the sailors getting into our young junior programme now.

“They saw the fantastic athletes show what a great country we can be and support and celebrate human endeavour.

“This event is an opportunity to practice processes and techniques and honing their skills.

“The team will go from here to one more final training camp in Brazil before Rio.”

As the wind picks up and the flags of the world start flying at the sailing academy, it’s time for the British sailors to hit the waters and show the world they’re ready for Rio.

Follow their journey online: #EveryRoadtoRio

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